Instead of screens today, why not make a dream catcher… We were recently at a country market and the Badoo’s eye was caught by a stall selling beautiful dream catchers. “What are those?” she said, all eyes and awe. “They’re dream catchers,” I explained. “The Native American Ojibwa nation made them to protect their kids from…

Years ago when our firstborns were babes in arms my sister Al and I decided that we would become scrapbookers. We had visions of ourselves spending long afternoons lovingly cutting out photos and embellishing them with… well, scrapbooky stuff. To be honest, our scrapbooking dreams were rather hazy. We bought some cardboard, we even visited…

LEGO is one of our favourite screen free activities but, let’s face it, while it might be fun to play with, it’s a b*tch to pack up. Could there really be a way to make LEGO fun for mum too? This LEGO mat solves two ongoing LEGO issues in one hit: somewhere dedicated to play and…

Instead of screens today, why not play in the dirt outside? My girls are a dynamic creative duo and the other day they spent a goodly amount of time under the house scraping out some ‘clay’. I didn’t even know there was clay under the house, but it turns out there was a very clingy kind of…

My big girl is a maker through and through. Ever since she was little she has liked to craft things. Lately she has been sewing with fabric and felt. She made the cute little bears above all on her own, cutting out the felt and sewing on the ears and eyes. She drew the rest…

Instead of screens today, why not try leaf printing? After the glow party we had a considerable amount of fluro paint about the place (mostly on the walls, floors and ceilings…). Cappers asked if she could use some for art and craft and I said those immortal words that float from a mother’s lips as…

Instead of screens today, why not… make something out of sticks? The lovely artwork above has pride of place in the window of our living room. Cappers (our resident maker) made it at school a couple of years ago. It was the moment she discovered her love of weaving and she hasn’t really stopped since. She…

Instead of screens today, why not… play with rocks. Rocks and sticks. For many kids in the world today, that’s all that’s in the toy box. I can’t quite get my head around it and I know my kids couldn’t, but I wish we could. One of my earliest childhood friends had a rock dolly that she…

Instead of screens today, why not… make a couple of pot plant friends? We recently spent a goodly amount of time making these gorgeous little pot plant friends to pretty up our front verandah. It’s such a simple (and cheap!) thing to make and it’s fun to change the faces or designs over time. Words are always…

Instead of screens today, why not… use story stones to tell a tale? We went on a rock hunt and found some smooth pebbles in the creek near our house. On the day we went hunting it was a wet day and the leeches were rampant! Eeek! Once those leeches started attaching, I didn’t feel…